


Arithmetic

by ardvari



Series: the lives and times [6]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 17:32:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10644702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardvari/pseuds/ardvari
Summary: He started beating his pen against the edge of the table ten minutes ago and still nobody is stopping him, just throwing him looks or ignoring him, letting Woolsey continue with his speech. He’s prattling on about Atlantis and the military and how it needs a leader with a different skill set, someone who will have different priorities, who will be better.“Oh, for cryin’ out loud…” he hisses, throwing his pen into the middle of the table and rubbing the bridge of his nose.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to _Goodbye Milky Way_

**Arithmetic**

He started beating his pen against the edge of the table ten minutes ago and still nobody is stopping him, just throwing him looks or ignoring him, letting Woolsey continue with his speech. He’s prattling on about Atlantis and the military and how it needs a leader with a different skill set, someone who will have different priorities, who will be better.

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud…” he hisses, throwing his pen into the middle of the table and rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

Woolsey looks at him pointedly, the little weasel, and then continues on triumphantly. He’s already won, Jack knows that. He’s been gearing for this ever since he went to Atlantis to evaluate Sam and now it’s his time to strike, his time to offer himself up for leader of the expedition.

When she comes home next week for her first-year command review and Ba’al’s extraction ceremony, she won’t be going back. Most likely it will be Woolsey meeting her at the SGC to tell her exactly that, and it drives Jack crazy. 

“What are you thinking, sir?” someone asks and turns to face him.

“I’m thinking that I miss the days when I was carrying a weapon,” he says and then gets up, shoving his chair back. “Excuse me.”

He leaves the room, strides back to his office and pulls off his tie. He hates when this happens, when the IOA so blatantly goes against everything he stands for and makes decisions that are utterly ridiculous, downright dangerous. There’s no better person for Atlantis right now than Sam. 

In the end he can’t even warn her, gets stuck at Area 51 for a few days and doesn’t get to the SGC until the day of the extraction ceremony. He meets the rest of SG-1 in the commissary, drinking coffee and working their way through a stack of rubbery pancakes. 

“Hey, gang!” he calls, waving as he walks up to them. 

Cam scrambles out of his chair, wiping at a bit of maple syrup on his chin. 

“Sir,” he says.

“At ease, Colonel,” Jack drawls, smirking at Sam, who hasn’t even made a move to get up. 

She smirks back, shakes her head slightly because she thinks he’s enjoying Mitchell’s obvious discomfort a little too much, is taking a little too much pleasure in making him jump and fumble. 

The ceremony takes forever and he’s bored and hungry, and he hasn’t even been able to talk to Sam alone, to make sure she’s okay. She seems to have shaken off her loss of command well, at least for now and in front of everyone else. She keeps talking about the moon base, a project that’s so new he hasn’t even read through its introductory file yet, and already she’s excited about it. She’s always been like that, snapping back, finding something else to sink her teeth into. She knows about the politics behind everything they do these days, knows she became a pawn in someone else’s petty game the moment she took over command at Atlantis. 

After the ceremony they gate back to Earth and he’s promised to buy lunch, so everyone makes their way to O’Malley’s. There’s a glitch in one of the base computers and Sam stays behind, telling them she’ll join them when she’s done. He wonders why these glitches always happen when she’s on base, and why someone else can’t fix the problem. They have to when she’s gone, after all. 

Vala’s already eating dessert while the rest of them sip coffee by the time she gets to the restaurant, out of breath and flushed.

“Sorry,” she says, sliding into the vacant chair beside him. 

“That took quite a while,” Cam comments, stirring his coffee.

“Yeah… I’ll need to take a look at the entire system one of these days; some of it is really outdated.”

Jack hands her the menu and she orders salad and one of those diet drinks she likes. It’s nice to have the entire team here together, listening to Daniel delve into some of the more lighthearted, funny stories of the two years Jack missed. He’s read their reports about those two years but there’s no Mary Poppins in them, no mention of Cam constantly losing his pants. He likes these unofficial details, the ones that make them all smile or roll their eyes at each other; those are the ones that make him miss going out there with them. 

The sun’s already low in the sky when they finally leave, standing in front of the restaurant like a bunch of awkward teenagers. 

“So? Where will you go now?” Cam asks Sam, nudging her gently.

She shrugs, looks at Jack briefly.

“Don’t know yet. I guess maybe I’ll get some time to settle in again,” she says, letting her thumb run over the serrated edge of her car keys. 

They all hug because who knows if they’ll all be here tomorrow, if something doesn’t call one of them away and it’ll take months or years to get them all back in the same spot again, alive and well. 

Jack falls into step beside Sam, smirks when she reaches out to hold his hand. 

“Your place?” he asks softly.

“Do we have other options?” she asks back, raising an eyebrow at him. “I know the Air Force had someone come by to clean but… I don’t really feel like dealing with groceries and clean bed sheets quite yet.”

“They always give me a hotel room when I come out here,” he answers, stopping in front of her car. 

He wonders who took care of it while it sat at the base; it’s clean and shiny in the slanting sunlight. Maybe Mitchell drove it because Mitchell is a speed demon with an appreciation for old cars just like her. 

“Let’s go there,” she says, her voice soft, hitching a little. 

“Okay. Just follow my car,” he says, leaning in for a quick kiss before he walks to his rental. 

At the hotel he manages to drop his bags and close the door to their room before she launches herself at him, her entire body pressed against his while she kisses him. Somehow he turns her around, supports her weight and pushes her up against the door. Her hands are everywhere, on his back, in his hair, on his cheeks. He slips his tongue past her lips, tastes her, swallows her moan. There’s nothing but need all of a sudden and he thinks he’s going to go crazy, must have gone crazy in this past year of not really being able to touch her. 

She pulls on his clothes and then helps him take hers off, too. He doesn’t know how exactly they eventually end up on the bed but there they are, fumbling a little, chuckling and touching, always touching. 

Later, when it’s already dark outside and the lights of downtown Colorado Springs wash the room in orange light, he lets his fingers trace up her leg, over the sharp outline of her hipbone and along her belly. Her skin is soft and she’s on her side, her head propped up on her hand, watching him. 

“What?” he whispers, tracing the underside of her breast, letting his hand travel up so he can hold the curve of it in his palm. 

“Nothing,” she whispers back. “I just missed this. I missed just… being with you.”

He nods, lets his hand wander up to her shoulder, to the back of her neck so he can pull her lips down to his. 

“Maybe things will quiet down a little now,” he says softly, brushing a few strands of blonde hair out of her face. “Even if… I’m really sorry they took Atlantis away from you.”

She drops her gaze, sighs loudly. She reaches out, grasps his hand and laces her fingers through his. 

“So am I. Not for my sake but for the sake of everyone there. It’s just… I hope he can hack it. I hope that this decision won’t put them all in danger,” she says. 

He nods thoughtfully, brushes his thumb along her index finger before he pulls her against him. No need for words now, he knows there’s nothing he could say to take that lingering feeling of loose ends left to dangle away. 

They fall asleep curled together, the mess of covers and pillows tucked around them. When she turns around in the middle of the night he follows suit, tucking her back against his front, holding her close for as long as he can.


End file.
